The Cowboy's Triple Surprise

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WHEN HIS YOUNGEST GRANDDAUGHTER, Tina, entered the kitchen, Jed Garland took notice. Her grin made him sit back in his chair and nod in satisfaction.

Paz, standing near the refrigerator, stopped and turned their way.

“Tyler went for the bait, did he?” Jed asked.

“I don’t know about that.” Tina laughed. “But as you would put it, let’s just say Jane had him well and truly hooked by the time I left the banquet hall. He’s helping with the table setups, though his attention keeps wandering, and so does Shay’s. I’m now beginning to think you were right all along. You’re some matchmaker, Abuelo.”

“I try,” he said modestly.

Both she and Paz laughed out loud.

“I’m curious,” Tina said. “Tyler seemed so reluctant to help after you told him Shay would be working with us. I’m surprised he’s cooperating now. What did you say to him after the rest of us left the dining room?”

“I simply mentioned that no able-bodied man would let a woman in Shay’s condition get overworked.”

“Mentioned?” Paz repeated.

Chuckling, he looked over at the hotel cook. She had worked for him for more than twenty years now, since before they had this granddaughter in common and long before those gray streaks had started threading through her hair. “Well, maybe a bit stronger than mentioned. What do you think of his reaction?”

She crossed the room to take the chair beside Tina’s. After a glance toward the kitchen door, she smiled at them both. “I think it has proved your point. If we didn’t already believe that Tyler is the daddy of Shay’s babies, I would surely think so now.”

He nodded. “We’d have had to be imbeciles not to have caught on months ago. The boy’s reactions today only confirm he and Shay had something going on.”

“True,” Tina said. “I was watching, and the look on his face when he stood in the doorway and saw her was priceless. So was Shay’s when she found him sitting beside her. But I’m feeling a little guilty you didn’t tell either of them ahead of time that they would see each other at lunch.”

He shook his head. “There’s a lot to be said for shock value. And there’s even more to be said about keeping those two on their toes. Jane and the other girls are still with them in the banquet hall, aren’t they?”

Tina nodded.

“Good. Nothing like holding something a man wants within his sight but just out of reach. I’m betting the longer he has time to question things, the more eager he’ll be to stick around to get answers. And in the long run, the more Shay will benefit.”

“Yes.” Paz nodded. “We have to think of Shay.”

“We do,” he agreed. “It’s best we all pretend ignorance for as long as we can. Then they’ll never suspect we’re trying to get them together.”

“You think this plan is a good one, Jed?” Paz asked.

“Of course, I do. And it’s not just me and the girls who believe in it.”

Tina gasped. “You talked to Mo?”

“I did, just before lunch. And she’s in complete agreement. Shay puts on a good act when she’s with any of us, but her grandma said she’s been moping for months now at home. And that’s not good for her.”

“Especially in her condition,” Paz said in alarm.

“Exactly. Well, don’t worry. We’ll be keeping her much too busy to worry about anything...except Tyler.”

“You are a devious, scheming man,” she said, shaking her head.

“Thank you,” he said with a grin.

Chapter Three (#ulink_8b44e73e-86b6-559e-91b5-3aa9379beab2)

“We need that table over here,” Jane called across the banquet room.

“No problem.” Tyler turned in midstride, rolling the round table on its edge across the hardwood floor toward the space she indicated. “You ladies sure do know how to put a man to work around here.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Heck, no. Hard labor is my middle name.” Though Jane laughed, he couldn’t keep from wincing. Head down, he busied himself with pulling out the legs of the table and tightening the supports. Then he crossed back to the wheeled cart and took down the next table.

The phrase he’d jokingly tossed out—hard labor—had made him think of Shay and her pregnancy. Where was the man who had gotten her into that state? There had to be someone in the vicinity. A husband. A boyfriend. Someone. Despite her lack of a wedding ring, for all he knew, she had married that someone a week after he had left town.

It looked to him as though she might be ready to have her baby at any minute. But what did he know about that, either? After lunch, she had stood from her seat beside his and lumbered away. Except for the rolling gait of a saddle-sore greenhorn, from the back she seemed just the way she had when he’d met her months ago. Quite a few months ago.

For a moment, his thoughts got hung up on the time frame. But only for a moment. He couldn’t have been the one to get her pregnant. After all, when he had said something about her moving on to someone else as soon as he’d left town, she hadn’t denied it.

“Hold up, Tyler,” Jane called. “The reception’s in this room, not on the patio.”

To his chagrin, he saw he’d overshot his mark and was almost to a pair of doors leading outside. “Got it,” he said, forcing a laugh. Abruptly, he turned back and took the table to the appropriate spot.

As he continued to work, Shay remained absorbed in her vases and ribbons. Every time he attempted to set up a table closer to her, Jane sent him to another area of the room.

Maybe that was for the best. He and Shay didn’t have anything left to say to each other. And they couldn’t have talked much, anyway, with Tina or Jane constantly by her side. It was as if they were standing guard over her. Every time Jed stopped by the room, even he seemed to take up a protective stance. Because...

Because she was due to have that baby at any minute?

Despite his own reassurances to himself, he did some quick mental math. The results caused him to pull his bandanna from his back pocket. It took him two tries to wipe the cold sweat from his face.

“You okay, cowboy?” Jane called teasingly.

Across the room, Shay looked up from her work.

“Ma’am,” he said to Jane, “I’ve had a change of heart. You’re about working me to death here.” He grinned. “Even the hired hands ought to be entitled to a cold drink now and then, don’t you think?”

He saw her fighting to hide a smile. She made a show of glancing at her watch. “Well, I suppose we can spare you for a minute.”

“Good.” He ambled across the room, deliberately avoiding Shay and Tina and aiming straight for the corner table a few yards from them. Earlier, one of the waitresses had brought in a jug of sweet tea. He filled a glass.

After a mouthful of the drink, he turned to look at the two women. Both were pregnant. Was there something in the water around here? He eyed his tea glass and swallowed a laugh. Then he looked at Shay’s belly again, and his sense of humor deserted him.

He needed to act normally around her, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. Which he didn’t. Hoping for a casual approach, he headed toward their table. From across the room he saw Jane start their way, too.

He came to a stop beside Shay, not too near, but close enough to see the long sweep of her lashes as she kept her eyes down, her gaze focused on her work. Close enough to smell the same flowery perfume she had worn last summer when he’d danced with her at the wedding and, a few nights later, when he had slept with her in her bed.

He gulped another mouthful of sweet tea and nearly choked on it.